Running Your Business

Moonlighting Tips
By August 8, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Moonlighting Tips

It can be a challenge to start an online business while you keep your day job. At times the process could feel like a juggling act; you’ll need a lot of energy and determination. The general rules for starting a company while you keep your day job might seem like common sense, but some of […]

Set Up Your Website (1)
By December 12, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Set Up Your Website (1)

Website Basics When starting your first online store, it’s usually best to start simple and keep your costs low. It makes little sense to hire an expensive web designer – or to sign up for an eCommerce service with high monthly costs – until you’ve proven that you can sell your first products and keep […]

Choose How to Get Paid
By November 6, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Choose How to Get Paid

After you’ve decided on a shopping cart, you’ll need to choose a payment gateway (sometimes called a payment provider) that securely authorizes and charges customers’ payment cards, temporarily holds the funds in a merchant account that’s part of the service, and sends you the payments less transaction fees. Examples of payment gateways include PayPal, Authorize.net, Chase Paymentech, and Sage […]

Look Bigger than You Are
By July 21, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Look Bigger than You Are

To be successful your online store needs to inspire confidence in each visitor. Since you’re probably starting as a one-person company, this really amounts to looking bigger than you are online. The challenge is for your website to show as much of a big-company image as possible, while keeping starting costs low. Fortunately you can […]

PayPal Secrets
By October 28, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

PayPal Secrets

If you search online for the phrase “PayPal sucks” you’ll find discussion board comments and even entire websites with bad things to say about PayPal. Many of the complaints seem to suggest that PayPal freezes funds and even shuts down the accounts of honest merchants for completely unfair and arbitrary reasons. Reading between the lines, I […]

Problem Customers
By August 26, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Problem Customers

Early on you’ll start to encounter occasional problem customers. Your fair and courteous treatment of difficult situations will help establish your online reputation and could have a big impact on your job satisfaction and peace of mind. Real ‘Problem Customers’ Are Rare In nearly all cases, customers who seem combative, irrational, or even dishonest are […]

Grow Your Business
By July 12, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Grow Your Business

Once you start to sell online and prove your product idea, you can help your business grow by following some simple advice from a really smart CEO at a company where I once worked. This CEO is unusual because he shares so much information about running a company with his workers. It’s no coincidence that so many […]

Advertise Online
By October 1, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

Advertise Online

As discussed in the article about making your website visible, there are important reasons to buy online advertising from Google* and others. The benefits of online advertising can include jump-starting traffic to your website, and keeping you focused on the key terms you’ll need to emphasize on your web pages and in your ads so that […]

What’s an Outsourcer?
By July 3, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

What’s an Outsourcer?

As your business grows, you could find there’s too much work to handle while keeping your day job. And, if you sell physical goods, you might run out of room to store and prepare those items at home. At this stage, your choices can come down to enlisting family members or hiring employees and perhaps […]

The Inventory Trap
By June 6, 2013 0 Comments Read More →

The Inventory Trap

One of the most bewildering aspects to managing a business that stocks and sells physical goods (as opposed to selling only electronic downloads, or items drop-shipped directly from manufacturers to customers) is understanding the huge importance of inventory that you keep on hand to sell. It’s entirely possible that at some point your accounting software will tell […]